Unburied bodies tell the tale of Detroit — a city in despair

I live on the border of Detroit and it's bad real bad. It's like a warzone here. I go outside to smoke and I'm out at all hours of the night. I hear gun shots and sirens all night. Not only that I hear machineguns firing. I hear car chases with the cops constenly several times a night on the weekends.

Everything in this state has gone to sh*t since 2001. I use to be proud to live in Michigan. Not anymore I want to get out of this hole.

There use to be alot of decent jobs now your lucky if you get work at Mc Donalds.

Over the years I watched the jobs disapear with my own eyes. I can name 18 people that haven't worked in the last year. Most of them have given up looking. I have two cousins that graduated high school two years ago they've never had a job. No one is hiring.

Wantsome - A lot of people have had to find jobs out of state to make ends meet. It's that bad in metro-Detroit. Unfortunately, the malaise has spread, and unemployment is high in a lot of parts of the country, and not just Michigan anymore. Most employers have stopped hiring, except in select industries like healthcare. Even then, everyone seems to be cutting back.

Would you attribute the shooting to gangs? Drugs? Turf wars? I would imagine a combination of all of the above. When people need cash to survive and feed their family, people do desperate things.

reply to post by CookieMonster09

Would you attribute the shooting to gangs? Drugs? Turf wars? I would imagine a combination of all of the above. When people need cash to survive and feed their family, people do desperate things.

I would attribute the shootings to guns.

Why they use them is all of the above. It is a calamity waiting to happen when you have a city full of unemployed, poorly educated, desperate people and the only power they have is in their guns. And they have lots of them -- about the only thing there is plenty of in Detroit alongside cheap booze, expensive drugs, rich preachers and corrupt politicians.

Oh, and you can add glib news people who gloss over the daily murders like its nothing and sugar coat the harsh reality.

While there are certainly gangs in Detroit, they're not that big. At least nothing like what's in LA. There's just a lot of small crimes and assaults, and they happen pretty much everywhere. Lots of home invasions, cars broken into, metal scrapping of abandoned buildings, muggings, etc. Like wayno said, it's a result of uneducated and jobless teens running amok.

And tires stolen off of SUV's. That's even happening in the suburbs. Right around 3 AM, the boys jump out of their car, and in 5 minutes flat, they are back on I-75. Craziness.

This is what happens when unions and democrats run a state.
What happened to the millions of 'green' jobs Obama promised? The smart people in Detroit left years ago, to work for Honda, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes...
I take it these unclaimed bodies are crack whores, drug dealers and street thugs. Even poor people in ghettos claim the bodies of loved ones, and get help from their church to bury them.

stevegmu - i really don't think it's as political as you think. you can blame the unions - yes, there's plenty of blame there - but you can make just as many complaints against senior management at the Big 3, who ultimately was responsible for the management decisions to outsource American jobs and basically run the companies to the ground. there's plenty of blame to go around. and it's more economic reality-driven, than divided along political lines.

most of the democrats that are pro-union are that way because unions protect abuses by employers - and give the average worker some degree of safety and stability in an already tough work environment.

these democrats are pro-union because they are looking out for themselves and their family - no different than any CEO or executive board.

and there has certainly been a long list of abuses in the not so distant automotive past on the assembly line. remember when Ford's goons shot the union employees rallying for jobs outside his plant? there is a lot of history there as to why the unions came to be - and you can't blame these problems all at the foot of the unions. there is plenty of blame to go around.

Just to put a perspective on things, here is a rather nice story from today's Fox news about a dog being returned to a homeless man and his wife as a direct result of caring people.

www.myfoxdetroit.com...

The point is, there is still a lot of heart in Detroit. Mind you, if you look around that web site, you will find a story about a child that had been shot to death by his own father.

I just don't know what to say sometimes about that place.

reply to post by CookieMonster09



Of course the formerly big 3 had management issues. Ford and GM bet everything on the SUV, while Honda and Toyota perfected fuel-efficient, reliable cars. Unions are why industry left the rust belt and California, however. It just became too expensive and too much of a head ache to do business with them.
Sure, unions had a purpose at one time. They prevented children from taking the jobs of men, but no one is forced to work anywhere. If workers were being abused and they didn't quit of report the abuses, so be it.
How does the worker have stability, if the unions drove jobs to China and the South? They aren't being 'abused,' but they aren't working, either. No company can stay in business long paying its line-workers $70000/yr.

Boy I would hate to live in Detroit, Oh crap I do live in Detroit, oh what to do.
Well it is pretty bad but at least those bodies are in the morgue, where I'm at had one dead person in alley behind me, one in stolen meat truck down on the corner, another one on the corner not in meat truck, one on steps of bar or maybe was two on steps of bar, one dead in the blind pig down the street, 15 year old kid with head missing for not joining local gang.

Well things could always be worse, or I'm sure it could be, except for unemploymenet it's the worst here than any where, at least were number one for something, I don't think we have murder capital of the world anylonger. Dang


[edit on 24-11-2009 by googolplex]

Originally posted by googolplex
Boy I would hate to live in Detroit, Oh crap I do live in Detroit, oh what to do.
Well it is pretty bad but at least those bodies are in the morgue, where I'm at had one dead person in alley behind me, one in stolen meat truck down on the corner, another one on the corner not in meat truck, one on steps of bar or maybe was two on steps of bar, one dead in the blind pig down the street, 15 year old kid with head missing for not joining local gang.

Well things could always be worse, or I'm sure it could be, except for unemploymenet it's the worst here than any where, at least were number one for something, I don't think we have murder capital of the world anylonger. Dang


[edit on 24-11-2009 by googolplex]

Hmm, that's odd. I am a lifelong resident of the Metro Detroit Area and follow the local news. I don't recall any of the stories making the news. Surely the 15 year old's decapitation would have made the news.

I'm going to have to call BS on your post.

Detroit has it problems....no need to invent more.

reply to post by pavil
Man I don't know where you are but if your from Detroit you would know that half that stuff does not even make the news, maybe on some back page if it does.
And you really don't know what's up in south west they go in the house and kill everything in it, as for that 15 year old kid, I don't read the newspaper. A cop that was being hunted by the gang bangers told me that story he was there saw it, he also told me when he got the radio call of two of his fellow officer being hit, shot thru the front windsheild of their patrol car on a routine traffic stop. That made the headlines if you remember, the poor girl officer had covered her face with her hands as the guy fired, her hands were still stuck to her face, from the blood when they found her. I guess you didn't hear that part.
I don't think they put that part in the paper.
Remember Police Chief Hart, he got 20 years in prison, I think he died there, he worked under the crooked Mayor Coleman Young.
What's new, machine gun fire the cops show up two hours later, their not stupid, if you were in the burb's they would be right there, Detroit is not the suburbs.

As for your BS comment I would have to call that cop and ask for details, that happened around 2004 or 2005. and the kids head was blow off, 12 gage will do that some times.
You might remember when those two Border patrol officer were killed, they shot killed some dude, he wouldn't put has gun away they ask him nice, the retaliation was their murder plus burnt store down where it happened.
They had put a sign up for awhile said ( NO COPS, PIGS ALLOWED ), I'm sure you never saw that sign, I did.
There's places in Detroit, L.A. you would not walk down the street, if you did unless you were in the right click you would not last very long.


[edit on 24-11-2009 by googolplex]

Hey all,

I don't know anything about Detroit, never been there, only to Grand Rapids once... But here's an interesting article I've read about how to fix Detroit.

www.lwlworldwide.com...

Abolish all welfare of all sorts… no unemployment insurance… no child tax credits… no welfare… no foods tamps… no nothing, except privately-sponsored charities. Close the public schools.

Kick out all the bureaucrats and all federal and state employees. Abolish all rules concerning employment — no minimum wages, no overtime, discriminate all you want.

Require all residents to say please and thank you… dress properly… and sneer at people who don’t seem to be gainfully employed or polite. Declare the city an Open City and Free Trade Zone.

In exchange for cutting all federal aid programs, eliminate federal and state taxes for people living in the city. Allow unlimited immigration into the city… giving all immigrants a U.S. passport after five years of residency.

Levy a flat 10% tax to pay for basic services. Eliminate elections… have the city controlled by a town council composed of 10 citizens chosen at random.

Within five years, Detroit would be the most dynamic city in the nation.

reply to post by googolplex


Yes Detroit has it's share of killings, that's not new. Cops get shot in the line of duty, sadly. I don't think it is any different than any other Urban major city though. You make it sould like it's Mad Max and the Wild West put together. I know lots of things don't get reported fully either.

You just seemed to have sensationalized it, IMO. It's not like you stop at a traffic light and zombies start attacking your car and rip you to shreds.

My old neighborhood in Detroit is gone......destroyed. It looks like a bomb hit it. I know how bad off parts of Detroit are.

Like I have said before. Detroit need to figure out a way to be a city of 900,000 in an area that once housed 1.5M. It's a problem any City would have a hard time dealing with.

Originally posted by pavil
reply to post by googolplex

 

You just seemed to have sensationalized it, IMO. It's not like you stop at a traffic light and zombies start attacking your car and rip you to shreds.

When I stop at traffic light, I don't worry about zombies, but I make sure I stay back from the car in front of me, so it would harder to get boxed in for a rip.

Oh and if things get bad enough, you could have that Mad Max thing, some of the people I have spoken to can't wait for, Quote " To be like the wild west "


[edit on 24-11-2009 by googolplex]

reply to post by TheBandit795
Part of the plan for Detroit is to buy up and tear down a lot of housing blocks in the bad areas, where it is hard for the cops to police.
Once torn down the plan is to plant trees and start farmland, I don't know how that would work with all the pollution from illegal dumping and such.
This is also plan for Flint, Michigan in fact it is suppose to start there first, Flint has been hit pretty hard if you remember the movie by Micheal Moore and the GM plant closings.

From what I see Detroit's main problem is the corruption in the police and government, but then it has alwasys been that way.



[edit on 24-11-2009 by googolplex]

reply to post by googolplex


There is no easy solution for Detroit. There are big tracts of the City where there are bocks of already cleared out city blocks. I remember going to a friends house and passing block upon block of just flat land where once a neighborhood was. It was pretty weird to look at.

It's really kinda sad to see us in the suburbs dry out wetlands and forests to make subdivisions when the exact opposite is happening in the City proper. Nature is reclaiming parts of the city.

Sooner or later the urban sprawl will have to contract back .

How does the worker have stability, if the unions drove jobs to China and the South? They aren't being 'abused,' but they aren't working, either. No company can stay in business long paying its line-workers $70000/yr.

The unions weren't the driving the force for the automakers to move operations to China and down South.

It was the arrogant greediness of a few crusty CEO's who cared more about profits than they did about their fellow Detroit autoworkers.

Before unions, the average factory worker was very much abused and worked in some pretty awful work environments compared to today. Just read Upton Sinclair's book, The Jungle, if you want to know what working conditions in factories used to be like before unions were formed.

It is because of unions that we have had a stable middle class in this country for many decades. Unions brought many benefits to all classes of workers, not just union workers.

And I find it funny that you state that "No company can stay in business long paying its line-workers $70000/yr". What about the tens of millions of dollars that our Big 3 greedy executives earn for sitting behind a desk and pushing pencils all day? Auto workers actually create an actual product - They do the actual work of building cars. They are the lifeblood of the auto industry.

Unlike Hollywood celebrities, baseball players, soap opera actors, and all of the other ungodly professions in this country that earn gazillions of dollars pushing trash down our culture's throats, auto workers earn an honest living manufacturing a viable product - the automobile.

Do some auto workers abuse the system? Of course. But certainly no worse than the despicable greed we see in our boardrooms, on Wall Street, and in our golden parachute executive packages we pay to criminal CEO's that bring Fortune 500 companies to their knees.

How much money did the Notre Dame coach that just got fired earn? $18 million for walking out the door and being fired? And you complain about auto workers?

Any auto worker making $70k a year works a good deal of overtime. They have worked many years on the line, and it's not easy work. Have you ever even worked on an assembly line? It's dirty, grimy, exhausting work, and takes a heavy toll on your sanity and your health.

It's tiresome, repetitive, and grueling. Auto workers earn every penny of their pay. I spent one summer working the line at Johnson Controls manufacturing car seats, and that was about all I could handle. It's not easy work, and the pay isn't as great as you think it is, believe me. At the time, I believe the average Joe working the line was earning about $8-10 an hour. Auto workers at the Big 3 get paid more than that, but it's the same kind of work - tough, grimy, and exhausting.

reply to post by CookieMonster09


You make some good points.

And now, workers in Asia are doing that same dirty, tough job for a tiny fraction of the wages; while living in cramped industrial accommodations to boot.

Meanwhile, the execs and stockholders maintain their profits.

Do Mercedes and BMW produce in Asia for the world market? How do they maintain European production of their cars?

There is something to be said for the American manufacturers lack of ability to compete with quality that is part of the picture. Not blaming that on unions necessarily, but at some point in the past they had a role to play.

There is something about the culture in Detroit that is different from China or Germany. There is little sense of working for the greater good, about being a part of something bigger, and more about self interest -- whether its a personal high, or showing off with fancy clothes at the bar or in church. There is no vision.

Right now Detroiters are sitting ducks waiting to be exploited by the next con man.

reply to post by wayno


GM Ford and Chrysle had quality problems but it is the percieved quality of the foreign automakers that helped them out. i have several friends that traded back to the big 3 with the cash for clunkers . All of them travel and have noticed the quality of rental and company cars that are made by the big 3